


Babysit, Tolerate & Negotiate, Mourn, Realise your Feelings. That is how it works, right?

by whenwordsmakesense



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5 and a half years I say, 5+1 Things, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Human, Bisexual Character, Character Death, Childhood Friends, Demisexual Character, Developing Relationship, Hiding Places, M/M, and more ships, most of the characters are bg characters, petopher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29963664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenwordsmakesense/pseuds/whenwordsmakesense
Summary: A 5+1 Fic for Sterek, developing relationship: Just like it says on the title.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Kudos: 79





	Babysit, Tolerate & Negotiate, Mourn, Realise your Feelings. That is how it works, right?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm taking a little break from my WIP to figure things out in RL as well as to figure where to lead that story, but I wanted to write something, so here this is. It's not exactly well thought out, so there would be mistakes, do point that out to me but don't hold it against me, kay? :) 
> 
> Enjoy the fic!

**1\. Acquaintance**

The afternoon sun was bright, its light falling warmly on the ground of the park. It made the place look more alive than it was, reminding Derek of when he was as young as his sister and had come down here to play. It made him sad, reliving those days. His dad was in every memory of the park; this was his favourite place to have the father-son bonding time, when he could. Derek had delighted everytime when his dad would be at home and announce he would be taking Derek to the park. Laura had also wanted to come here, but this was their place; Now Derek felt like a butt-hole. 

“Der!” 

He tried to shake the memories and focus on the present, like Ms. Morell had said. He had to focus on his sister, now. He couldn't let her be gone, too. His mom would break if that happened. Laura just might never smile again. 

“Look, I made a friend! He says his name is Mischief,” Cora giggled. She had her arm slung on a small boy's shoulders, her weight pushing the boy down. But he didn't complain about the weight. He was simply smiling, not even bothered when Cora made fun of his name. Even as a big five-year-old, she wasn't very good with words and names. 

“Mischief is not a name,” Derek said, because it was not. Nobody would name their kid that. 

“But he says it is! It is, right?” Cora turned towards the boy, pouting. The boy looked at her, still smiling. 

“It is! Mommy calls me that,” he said. Derek felt himself giggle. The boy -- Mischief, apparently -- turned to him, his golden eyes shining. Derek knew it was the sun making his seem like that, but still, he couldn't help but look at them. “Are you Cora's big brother? That's so cool! I don't have a sibling, but I have always wanted one. It'd be like having someone ready to always play with you! So do you wanna play with us?” 

“Your eyes are like gold,” he said. Cora looked at him, narrowing her eyes like she does when she's getting ready to throw a tantrum. The boy, in turn, looked at Derek in wonder. 

“He is my friend. Go find someone else to play with.” Cora tugged at Mischief, his protests dying as she led them towards another girl about their age with red hair. Derek didn't even get a chane to answer the boy's question. Questions. 

That boy talked more than Laura. Well, more than Laura when she used to talk more. 

Derek missed his older sister. It was his father that was gone, but some days it felt like no one was home. Only when uncle Peter came home did he feel like he wasn't alone anymore. 

Sighing, Derek resigned himself to watching over his sister from a distance. At least she'd made friends with someone on her first day here. Derek had taken weeks to make his first friend, and he hasn't actually made new ones since. 

Not those who weren't friends of Cora, anyways. She made friends left and right, and because she was a demon, she liked to shove all of them at his feet and demand he be friends with them as well. Except this Mischief. Because he'd complimented the boy. 

He didn't do that. 

Whatever. Wasn't like a kid Cora's age could be his friend. Derek was eleven, and he should have friends his age. Like Boyd. 

**2\. Tolerated Human in Close Proximity**

Ever since Cora had met that boy -- Mischief -- she'd notched her demon level by 100. Even their mom had to stop her work and scold her at least once a day. 

Derek was very happy about that. It meant his mom wasn't wallowing all that much anymore. It had been almost two years now, and she should be smiling and happy now. His dad could never be replaced, but Derek knew he would not have wanted to become the reason his family was so sad. 

Even Laura liked Mischief. He was always talking, or doing something, and Laura and Cora were drawn to him like magnets. The boy would be delighted and talk even more rapidly, excitement and mischief rising with ever smile he got from Derek's sisters. 

Derek feared the days Lydia Martin was at his home as well. Cora, Mischief and Lydia could raise Lucifer and send him back to hell crying. 

So he hid. He read books, did his homework, did anything that would keep him away from the demons. He had no idea why his family liked them so much. Uncle Peter, he could get. He was a demon himself. The kind Derek had learnt to tolerate, like Cora. But Lydia and Mischief were completely different. 

Apparently his hiding place wasn't as secretive as he'd thought.

Mischief found him by the stump in the preserve of his family's property, making all the loud noises so that the birds Derek was observing all flew away. Derek looked at the boy in annoyance. 

Mischief was actually older than Cora and Lydia. He was seven-years-old, a year older than them. But he was still the smallest of them. 

“Why are you here?” Derek asked, irritated. 

“We need a refree for our game,” Stiles said cheerfully. He babbled on about basketball, and how it was a game he and the girls wanted to try, but they were only four and they wanted to play but someone should see none of them are cheating. 

Derek thought about it. “Who knows about this place?” 

Stiles stopped talking, looked around, and said, “No one but us. Why, do you want to make a deal like big people?” 

Derek shook his head. “I am big people. I'm thirteen,” 

“You are not.” 

“I am.”

“Derek, your birthday is on 25th December. That's months away.” 

Derek had no doubt he and Lydia had found that out with less than nice means. “I'll be the referee. But I have some conditions. I'll be the referee for maximum three games, only today. You won't tell anyone about this place. And you'll change your name to Stiles.” 

“What, why?” 

“It is better than Mischief. Also, it makes more sense to me as I know your surname.”

“You will never find out my real name,” Stiles threatened. Derek thought the new name fit. Weird, but had a nice ring to it. Like the boy himself.

Derek shrugged. He didn't want to know. 

“Also, you will play with us at least once every week,” Stiles added. 

Derek negotiated for playing once every two weeks. Stiles agreed, and when they went home, he announced he'd decided to change his name to Stiles. Lydia nodded at that; Cora looked sad. Laura cheered her up by calling her demon and having her chase after her. 

Derek remembered that day, because that was the first day since his dad's death that his mom had laughed, _really_ laughed. 

**3\. Friends**

Derek was fourteen and Stiles was nine when Stiles lost his mother. Derek tried his best to reach the boy, remembering how he himself had felt when he'd lost his dad at the same age. 

Stiles didn't let anyone come see him except his dad for the next three months. When he finally did, he wasn't the same. 

No amount of Cora and Lydia doing the things they did before to cheer him up worked. Neither did talking to Ms. Morell, it seemed. 

Derek found himself disconnecting from the world as well. He'd known Stiles for years, and never had the boy been so quite. So sad. So broken. 

Derek remembered himself in the raw moments of his grief, when all he'd wanted was to be left alone, away from words and people. Maybe Stiles wanted the same? 

So Derek left Stiles a note. 

The next day he found Stiles at his hiding place, holding a children's book. He looked as if waiting for Derek to mock him, to laugh at him. Derek did neither. 

Stiles sat beside him after a while, both of them reading books. 

They did it for the next whole year, till Stiles became more like himself. 

Derek found himself looking forward to the quite with Stiles. He was disappointed when Stiles didn't come one day. 

But then Stiles always found him. He was talking more now, joking, he was himself. But he made time for Derek, didn't talk until Derek did. 

Derek loved those silences. And sometimes, the not-so-silences. 

**4\. Crush**

Derek didn't know when it had happened. Didn't know when instead of imagining Paige, he'd started imagining Stiles. 

For him, liking someone meant knowing them, understanding a person. Liking spending time with them. It was like family, except Derek also wanted to kiss the person. So it was different that way. 

He hadn't realised he was Demisexual until he was twenty-two. It was Stiles, ironically, who told him that. Explained to him why he felt like he did. 

Along the years, Stiles had become Derek's best friend. Boyd was too, but Stiles was different. Derek learnt why when he realised his true feelings for the seventeen-year-old boy. 

Derek had dated Paige for a long time. From when he was fifteen to when he was eighteen, breaking-up only when they knew the long-distance would never work for them. After that, Derek had only ever dated Jennifer, but it was more because his peers set him up with her than anything else. They'd broken up in less than a month, when it became clear to Jennifer that he didn't want sex. 

Still, Derek had loved Paige. He still thought about her. Being with Jennifer wasn't like being with his first love. 

So a year later, when he realised he now thought of Paige as a good friend -- they still texted -- and of Stiles as he once did for her, he wasn't sure what to do. 

Stiles was his best friend. He was only seventeen. He might like boys, he was bisexual, but he would not like Derek like that. Their relationship was based on silences and support and a pillar of strength, not something that could turn into love. 

But Derek did.

He loved Stiles. 

**5\. Boyfriends**

Derek hadn't gone home that summer. Or even after he was done with his degree. Or even after he got his first job and first real vacation. 

He didn't go home for a year. His family came to him instead. 

But no Stiles. 

He was avoiding him. He knew that. It was his decision. Stiles had kept asking for months if it was because of something he did, kept asking for explanations, but Derek kept avoiding him. 

Cora and Laura had both smacked him on the head for that when they'd arrived a week before. They had been angry at him, making him more miserable. It wasn't their fault. Derek was acting like an asshole. 

He didn't want to ruin his relationship with Stiles. But he had. He fucked up everything. 

His mom and Uncle Peter were going to come the next day. Derek kept going back to the fact that his uncle hadn't found love until he was in his mid-thirties. He'd had kids -- Malia and Jackson, both from flings -- and a family, but no one to call his partner. And then had come Chris Argent, a fellow parent, having just come to settle in Beacon Hills and wanting to have his daughter learning in BHHS. A principal and a parent in a relationship was not conventional, but their love had won everyone over; as embarassing as it was for Allison, Malia and Jackson to find their parents smooching around the corners of their high school as teenagers, it was an epic love story. 

Derek didn't want that. He just wanted _Stiles_. 

Laura and Cora found him one night, shaking and sobbing. He was having a nightmare, watching his life pass by, watching Stiles pass by. He didn't know he loved Stiles this much, but it wasn't surprising. Everything he felt for Stiles was intense. 

“Is this why you have been distant?” Laura asked when he was able to speak, somewhat. She was being as gentle as possible. Cora, on the other hand, was her typical angry bird self. 

“This is what family is for. Friends are for. Derek, you come to us! To Boyd! To Stiles!” 

When Derek managed to find his voice, the only thing he asked was: “Even when the thing that's eating me alive is Stiles? I should go to him?” 

His sisters fell silent. They had clearly not expected that. 

Cora asked, “What did he do?” and Derek laughed. She'd always said Stiles was her platonic soulmate, and that when Lydia and she would rule the world, Stiles would be the only man by their side. Because he's special. 

“He's perfect.” Derek said, and sobbed. Stiles would never love him. Could never. He'd destroyed their relationship, what they had. Even if there was a chance, Derek had clearly destroyed it. 

There was a long silence. Cora started to speak, but Laura shushed her. The three of them spent the night together in his room. Their mom and uncle found them like that the next day. 

The rest of the week was subdued, but one they'd all remember fondly as a family. They bonded more than they ever had, just like the time Stiles had bonded them all together again after Nathaniel Hale's untimely death. It was ironic, and made Derek even more miserable, but it just bonded them more. 

All they did was eat bad food and watch bad movies and talk about all the shit they'd pulled over the years. The three of them gained quite a lot of blackmail material on Malia, Jackson and surprisingly, Allison. Cora admitted to liking a boy named Isaac she'd met on her University's tour before coming here. Laura finally admitted the name of the guy she'd been seeing for some time now. 

It turned out that the guy Cora liked and Laura's boyfriend were siblings. 

Derek was happy for them, and it was a funny situation, and he wanted to text Stiles. Both Cora and him reached for their phones and giggled when they realised what they were doing, and then froze. 

Thankfully the bell rang then, and Derek made his exit. This was his apartment, whoever this person was had come for him. 

It was Stiles. 

Derek slammed the door. Opened it again to an angry looking Stiles. 

“Derek Samuel Hale! For fuck's sake, learn to use your fucking words. _Goddamnit_ , I am in love with an idiot,” before the words registered, Stiles was kissing him. Derek froze, and Stiles tensed, starting to pull away. But then the words came back to him, and he kissed Stiles harder. 

“You- you don't hate me? Even after I was an asshole?” 

Stiles looked sinful. His lips were shining with their saliva. Derek had done that to Stiles' lips. 

Derek Samuel Hale. Which...

“You shouldn't know my name,” he said. Stiles gave him a look. 

“You avoided me for a year. I reserve the right to these kinds of things.” 

“You donated half my money to some charity, didn't you,” Derek said, flashing back to the alert he'd gotten about three months ago. He didn't remember which charity, but it was for a good cause, so he had let it be. 

Stiles blushed. Derek kissed him again. 

Someone cleared their throat from behind him. 

“Fuck,” Stiles startled and bit Derek's lips. Derek was horrified at two things then: the way his dick twitched happily in his pants, and the way his dick twitched happily in his pants _in the presence of his family._

“I see that you two idiots have become... Less of your idiotselves,” Peter said, grinning. His mom and sisters looked amused. 

Laura pulled on her coat and handed the others theirs as well. Cora snatched Stiles from outside the door and hugged him, hard. Then ruffled his hair -- last time that Derek had seen Stiles, he had had a buzz cut. Derek liked it, but he liked the long hair more. 

All of his family walked out and shut the main door of his apartment. His mom yelled, “We'll be back in twenty! Be decent. Stiles is still underage,” from the other side. Stiles tripped on air and Derek had to catch him by his waist. 

Yeah. Being decent would be a lot hard. 

Pun totally not intended, but oh well. 

Then Laura's voice reached their ears, “You only have to wait a month, boys!” and they both fell down. _Hard_. 

**+1. Husbands**

The backyard of their home was filled with all of their dear and loved ones. Derek had bought this house shortly after the 'NY Idiot riddance' -- as everyone had begun to call it, to Derek's growing annoyance and Stiles' sometimes embarassment and sometimes amusement -- in the hopes that this could be his and Stiles' home one day. It was close to the preserve, one of the homes his mom's company had built, and it meant being close to family. Stiles hadn't stopped smiling for hours after having learnt of this development. 

He had also cried, but it was out of happiness, so Derek let himself not feel guilty about that. 

The house was huge. The first was mostly open plan, living room, kitchen and dining taking a lot of the livable space. There was also a garage -- it could hold two cars and a bike -- a bathroom, a study, and a door to the basement was also there; The basement was not that big, but it had a library, a gym and a guest bedroom if need be. And there was the empty space for whatever and another area for washing machine and dryer. Derek's favourite part was the gym. 

The second floor had a game room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and another bedroom for their dogs, Darwin and Zen. The third floor had the master bedroom, a walk-in closet and a small room which could be used as a nursery. Or if they wanted, they could switch their dog's rooms with the nursery when there was no use for a nursery.

Not to mention the big backyard. Technically, it was all preserve and they didn't own it, his mother did; She'd gone all out with the help of Cora, Laura, Lydia, Erica, Isaac, Allison and Kira to decorate the place for his and Stiles' wedding. 

Derek's and Stiles'. 

_Their_ wedding. 

It had been six years since the NY.C -- fuck, it was catching on -- and Derek now had a promising career in Law, two dogs whom he loved like his kids, a hard-earned Camaro he loved so much, a loving mother, a douche but lovable uncle and his husband; he also had his sisters and cousins, his friends Boyd and Erica and Isaac -- Derek never did make another friend on his own, but he still found friendship in the most precious of people -- in his family friends, in his nephews Benjamin and Oscar Lahey; but most of all, he was going to walk down the aisle towards the arch where they'd be married. 

Him and Stiles. 

_Fuck_. 

He couldn't believe that after so many years, after almost two decades of meeting this one young boy who was his sister's friend, he was going to be united with the soul he loved the most in front of all of those who mattered to him. 

Even Scott, because he seemed to make Allison happy. Yeah, that might be one guy Derek wasn't thrilled to have around, but love is all about making your love happy, right? And if not, than getting to call Stiles his husband would be more than enough. 

Yeah, Derek couldn't wait to call Stiles his husband. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to see ya soon, stranger!


End file.
